Hectic

It's Wednesday night, about 48 hours before we leave Perth on our way back to the States. It's hard to believe all this time has gone by so quickly...or at least it seems quickly now. We arrived here on the 24th of November and we had more than two-and-a-half weeks to spend here, plenty of time to get things done. Now we're short-timing it and trying to get what's left on the list accomplished. Right now it's mostly getting to see remaining friends and family here and we're managing to see many of them. But it's getting tight!

For instance, we had lunch today with Christine and Eddy. I first met Christine during my first visit to Oz in 2003 where she and Jonnene would walk each other's dogs together at the park oval nearly every evening. Christine's dog, Ben, a border collie, and Jonnene's dog, Sophie, were running mates until Sophie came to the States with Jonnene 22 months ago. In fact, we were told that whenever Ben goes by Jonnene's old house, he still turns into the driveway expecting to see Sophie and go into the house. Anyway, we knew we had to see Christine at some point during the trip and it was great to see her and the new guy in her life. We liked Eddy. He seems to be good for her. And we're going to see them again for a little bit late Friday afternoon and see Ben. He's had both hips replaced and he's not doing so good, so we wanted to see him again since we weren't sure he'd be around the next time we're in town. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Then we hit the downtown area for more souvenir shopping and it wasn't much at all. We did a lot of it the first couple of days we were here so now it's finishing up those last couple of names on the list. This will be the last time we, of our own volition, will get souvenirs for everyone back home. On our future trips to Australia (and probably anywhere else from now on) we'll only get souvenirs for those who specifically ask for them. If they don't ask, they get nothing! I think we're down to only two or three folks to get something for, and we'll get that job done.

Tonight we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Anna's in the Leederville section of town with some of the group from the Revolution Pilates studio where Jonnene had learned to become a pilates instructor. She's already had three sessions there since we arrived, including a semi-private this morning with Neil, the studio's owner. Anyway, we met up with Neil, Tristen (also an instructor) with his wife Sonja, and another instructor Julie. It was a fun dinner as we ordered up our meals and placed them all in the center of the table where we picked up servings from each of the plates for ourselves. There was chicken (three types), fish, vegetables (which I didn't touch), and something else I don't remember. The sauces in the dishes were amazing and, as I like to say, dem boys was tasty. Plus all the personalities made the dinner funny as well as some interesting conversation. Definitely a good way to top the day.